Washington and in the Field in the Sixties. By Charles A. Dana.
New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 296. Price, $2.]
Mrs. _Arabella B. Buckley's Fairy-Land of Science_ has stood the test
of about thirty years' publication as one of the simplest, clearest,
and best popular introductions to physical science. Originating in a
course of lectures delivered to children and their friends, the
thought of publishing the book was suggested by the interest taken in
the lectures by all the hearers. It was a happy thought, and the
carrying of it out is fully justified by the result. But thirty years
is a long time in so rapidly advancing a pursuit as the study of
science, and makes changes necessary in all books treating of it. The
publishers of this work,[52] therefore, with the assistance of the
author, have considerably extended the original volume, adding to it
notices of the latest scientific discoveries in the departments
treated, and amplifying with fuller detail such parts as have grown in
importance and interest. A few changes have been made in the interest
of American readers, such as the substitution, where it seemed proper,
of words familiar here for terms almost exclusively used in England,
and the introduction of American instead of English examples to
illustrate great scientific truths. The book has also been largely
reillustrated.
[Footnote 52: The Fairy-Land of Science. New York: D. Appleton
and Company. Pp. 252.]
Some of the essays in Miss _Badenoch's True Tales of the Insects_[53]
have already appeared in serials--two of them in the Popular Science
Monthly. The essays are not intended to present a view of entomology
or of any department of it, but to describe, in an attractive and at
the same time an accurate manner, a few special features of insect
life and some of what we might call its remarkable curiosities. The
author is well qualified for her undertaking, for, while being an
entomologist of recognized position, she has those qualities of
enthusiasm in her pursuit and literary training that enable her to
present her subject in its most attractive aspect. From the great
variety of insect forms she has selected only a few for this special
presentation, including some of eccentric shape and some of genuine
universal interest. She begins with the strange-looking creatures of
the family of the _Mantidæ_, or praying insects, or, as the Brazilians
call the _Mantis_, more fitly, the author thinks, the devil's riding
horse, which is characterized as "the tiger, not the saint, of the
insect world." The walking-stick and walking-leaf insects, of equally
strange appearance, but peaceful, naturally follow these. Then come
the locusts, and grasshoppers, which are more familiar, and the
butterflies and moths, which attract the most attention and present
such remarkable forms as the case-moths and the hawk and death's-head
moths. The insects made subjects of treatment are described with
fullness of detail, and the record of their life histories. The book
is published in an attractive outer style, on thick paper, with
thirty-four illustrations by Margaret J. D. Badenoch.
[Footnote 53: True Tales of the Insects. By L. N. Badenoch.
London: Chapman & Hall. Pp. 253.]
Prof. _Charles C. James_, now Deputy Minister of Agriculture for
Ontario, defines the purpose of his book, _Practical Agriculture_[54]
to be to aid the reader and student in acquiring a knowledge of the
science as distinguished from the art of agriculture--"that is, a
knowledge of the 'why,' rather than a knowledge of the 'how.'" The
author believes, from his experience of several years' teaching at the
Ontario Agricultural College, that the rational teaching of
agriculture in public and high schools is possible and would be
exceedingly profitable, and that an intelligent knowledge of the
science underlying the art would add much interest to the work and
greatly increase the pleasure in it. The science of agriculture is
understood by him to consist of a mingling of chemistry, geology,
botany, entomology, physiology, bacteriology, and other sciences in so
far as they have any bearing upon agriculture. He has aimed in this
book to include only the first principles of these various sciences,
and to show their application to the art of agriculture. The subject
is treated as it relates, consecutively, to the plant, the soil, the
crops of the field; the garden, orchard, and vineyard; live stock and
dairying; and, under the heading of "other subjects," bees and birds,
forestry, roads, and the rural home. The appendix contains lists of
trees and of weeds, and an article on spraying mixtures. Questions to
be answered by the reader are attached to most of the chapters. The
illustrations are well chosen and good.
[Footnote 54: Practical Agriculture. By Charles C. James.
American edition edited by John Craig. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. Pp. 203. Price, 80 cents.]
Considerable information about the Philippine Islands and their
inhabitants is given by Dr. _D. G. Brinton_ in a pamphlet entitled
_The Peoples of the Philippines_. Dr. Brinton's point of view is the
anthropologist's, and accordingly, after a few paragraphs about the
geography, geology, and history of the islands, he takes up their
ethnology and describes their various peoples as they have been
studied by the masters of the science and by travelers. Much valuable
as well as interesting information is given respecting their manners
and customs, languages, and literature, for the Tagals have had a
written language from the earliest known times, and though their old
literature does not amount to much they are to-day exceedingly facile
versifiers.
The Open Court Publishing Company (Chicago) publishes _The Lectures on
Elementary Mathematics_ (_Leçons élémentaires sur les mathématiques_)
of _Joseph Louis Lagrange_, "the greatest of modern analysts," in a
translation from the new edition of the author's collected works by
Thomas J. McCormack. These lectures, which were delivered in 1765 at
the École Normale, have never before been published in separate form,
except in the first printing in the Journal of the Polytechnic School
and in the German. "The originality, elegance, and symmetrical
character of these lectures have been pointed out by De Morgan, and
notably by Dühring, who places them in the front rank of elementary
expositions as an example of their kind. They possess, we might say, a
unique character as a reading book in mathematics, and are interwoven
with helpful historical and philosophical remarks." They present with
great clearness the subjects of arithmetic and its operations,
algebra, equations of the third and fourth degrees, the evolution of
numerical equations, and the employment of curves in the solution of
problems. The translator has prefixed a short biographical sketch of
Lapouge, and an excellent portrait is given.
A book of _Observation Blanks for Beginners in Mineralogy_ has been
prepared by _Herbert E. Austin_, as an aid to the laboratory course,
and is published by D. C. Heath & Co. (Boston, 30 cents). The
laboratory course is intended to make the pupil familiar with the
characteristics of minerals and the terms used in describing them by
directing him to observe typical specimens and describe what he sees,
and to develop his faculties of observation, conception, reasoning,
judgment, comparison, and memory. A description is given of apparatus
that may be home-made. The blanks follow, containing spaces for the
insertion of notes under the heads of Experiment, Observation,
Statement, and Conclusion.
In Volume No. XXX of the International Education Series--Pedagogics of
the Kindergarten--a number of Froebel's essays relating more
especially to the plays and games were printed from the collection
made by Wichard Lange. A new volume of the series, _Friedrich
Froebel's Education by Development_, includes another selection from
Lange's publication, in which the gifts are more thoroughly discussed.
"Again and again, in the various essays," the editor of the series
says, "Froebel goes over his theory of the meaning of the ball, the
sphere, the cube, and its various subdivisions. The student of Froebel
has great advantage, therefore, in reading this volume, inasmuch as
Froebel has cast new light on his thought in each separate exposition
that he has made.... The essays on the training school for
kindergartners and the method of introducing children's gardens into
the kindergarten are very suggestive and useful. In fact, there is no
other kindergarten literature that is quite equal in value to the
contents of this volume." The few essays in Lange's volume that still
remain untranslated are characterized as being mostly of an ephemeral
character. With the publication of the present volume, of which, as of
the Pedagogics, Miss Josephine Jarvis is the translator, a complete
list of the original works of Froebel in English translations has been
provided in the International Education Series of Messrs. D. Appleton
and Company.
A useful manual for students in chemistry is the _Chemical
Experiments_ of Prof. _John F. Woodhull_ and _M. B. Van Arsdale_
(Henry Holt & Co., New York). It embraces directions for making
seventy-five experiments with different substances and chemical
properties, including oxygen and the air, hydrogen and water, chlorine
and the chlorine family, acids, bases, salts, sulphur, nitrogen,
carbon, carbon dioxide and the carbonates, fermentation, potash, and
problems to illustrate the law of definite proportions. A title is
given to each experiment, suggesting what is to be proved by it; the
details of the process are given, and the pupil is left to do the
rest, entering his particular observations and conclusions on the
blank page opposite the text. Questions are appended, of a nature
further to develop the thinking powers of the pupils, and tables or
lists are added of the elements concerned in the experiments, weights
and measures, apparatus, and chemicals.
The book _Defective Eyesight: the Principles of its Relief by
Glasses_, of Dr. _D. B. St. John Roosa_, is the result of an attempt
to revise The Determination of the Necessity for Wearing Glasses,
published by the same author in 1888. It was found, on undertaking the
work of revision, that the advance in our knowledge of the proper
prescription of glasses, especially in the matter of simplicity in
method, had been so great as to require a complete rewriting. In doing
this the book has been very much enlarged, and illustrations have been
introduced. The author hopes his manual may prove a reliable guide to
the student and practitioner in ophthalmology, and may also be of
interest to persons who wish to know the principles on which the
prescription of glasses is based. The special subjects treated
of are the measurement of visual power, presbyopia, myopia or
short-sightedness, hypermetropia, corneal astigmatism, asthenopia, and
the qualities of lenses. (Published by the Macmillan Company. Price,
$1.)
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. North
Carolina State Agricultural Society: Second Annual Report (1896) of
the Experimental Farm at Southern Pines. Pp. 90.--Ohio: Press Bulletin
No. 195. Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 196. Comparison of
Varieties of Wheat. Pp. 2; No. 197. Successful Treatment of Stomach
Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 198. Varieties of Wheat and Home-mixed
Fertilizers. Pp. 2.--United States Department of Agriculture: Monthly
List of Publications (July, 1899). Pp. 4; Report on North American
Fauna. No. 14. Natural History of the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico. Pp.
96; No. 15. Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus _Zaphus_. By
Edward A. Preble. Pp. 34, with one plate; Report of the Puerto Rico
Section of the Weather and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau, for
May, 1899. Pp. 8.
Baker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New
York: The Van Nostrand Company. (Van Nostrand Science Series.) Pp. 97.
50 cents.
Beman, W. W., and Smith, D. E. New Plane and Solid Geometry. Boston:
Ginn & Co. Pp. 382.
Bulletins, Proceedings, Reports, etc. Boston Society of Natural
History: Vol. XXIX. No. 2. Variation and Sexual Selection in Man. By
E. T. Brewster. Pp. 16; No. 3. Notes on the Reptiles and Amphibians of
Intervale, New Hampshire. By Glover M. Allen. Pp. 16; No. 4. Studies
in Diptera Cyclorhapha. By G. & N. Hough. Pp. 8; No. 5. Contributions
from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. New Series: No. 17. By
B. L. Robinson and J. M. Greenman. Pp. 12.--Dominion of Canada:
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization.
Improvements In Crop Growing. By Prof. James W. Robertson. Pp.
39.--International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa.: General
Circular. Pp. 32.--Liberal University, Silverton, Oregon:
Announcements. Pp. 18.--Society of American Authors: Bulletin for
July, 1899. Pp. 22.--University of Michigan, Department of Medicine
and Surgery: Annual Announcement for 1899-1900. Pp. 91.--United States
Artillery Journal: Index to Vol. X, 1898. Pp. 12.
Carpenter, George H. Insects, their Structure and Life. A Primer of
Entomology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 404. $1.75.
Daniels, Winthrop Moore. The Elements of Public Finance, including the
Monetary System of the United States. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp.
383. $1.50.
Grotius, Hugo. Proceedings at the Laying of a wreath on the Tomb of,
July 4, 1899, by the Commission of the United States to the
International Peace Conference. Pp. 48.
Howard, John R., editor. Educational Nuggets. New York: Ford, Howard &
Hulbert. Pp. 215. 50 cents.
McIlvaine, Charles, and Macadam, R. K. Toadstools, Mushrooms, and
Fungi, Edible and Poisonous. (Specimen pages.) Indianapolis. Ind.: The
Bowen-Merrill Company. (Author's Edition.) $10.
Massee, George. A Text-Book of Plant Diseases caused by Cryptogamic
Parasites. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 458. $1.60.
Mellen, George E. New Pointers for Amateurs (Photography). Published
by the author. Times Building, Chicago. Pp. 46, with blanks. 15 cents.
Miller, Prof. Kelly. The Primary Needs of the Negro Race. Washington:
Howard University. Pp. 18.
Oregon Short Line Railroad. Where Gush the Geysers. (Guide to
Yellowstone National Park.)
Pelley, W. H., Knoxville, Ill. Christian Government. Pp. 44. 10 cents.
Pfungst, Dr. Arthur. Ein Deutscher Buddhist. (A German Buddhist.)
Theodor Schultze. Stuttgart. Pp. 51.
Rector, L. E., Translator and Editor. Montaigne on the Education of
Children. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (International Education
Series.) Pp. 191.
Reprints: Billings, S. A., and Englehardt, H. A. Observations on a New
Coal-Tar Product. Pp. 7.--Goldmann, J. A. Prophylactic Treatment of
the Uric-acid Diathesis. Pp. 8.--Kingsley, Carl. Methods of
Determining the Frequency of Alternating Currents. Pp. 11.--Kunz,
George F. The Production of Precious Stones in 1897. Pp. 22.--Shimer,
P. W. Carbon Combustions in a Platinum Crucible. Pp. 12.
Sumner, William G. The Conquest of the United States by Spain. Boston:
Dana, Estes & Co.
Smithsonian Institution: Doan, Martha. Index to the Literature of
Thallium. Pp. 26; Proceedings of the United States National Museum.
Index to Vol. XXI.
United States Commission of Labor: Thirteenth Annual Report. Hand and
Machine Labor. Two volumes. Pp. 1604.
United States Geological Survey: Nineteenth Annual Report. Part I.
Director's Report, including Triangulations and Spirit Levelings. Pp.
422, with map; Part IV. Hydrography. Pp. 814; Part VI. Mineral
Resources of the United States. By David T. Day. Two volumes. Pp. 651
and 706.--Monographs: Vol. XXIX. Geology of Old Hampshire County,
Massachusetts. By B. K. Emerson. Pp. 790, with maps; Vol. XXXI.
Geology of the Aspen Mining District, Colorado. By J. E. Spurr. Pp.
260, with an Atlas of thirty sheets; Vol. XXXV. The Later Extinct
Floras of North America. By J. S. Newberry. A posthumous work, edited
by Arthur Hollick. Pp. 295, with 68 plates.--Maps and Descriptions of
Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. Pp. 138, with envelope
containing ten maps.
Young Men's Christian Association, Educational Department: Annual
Report for 1899. Pp. 70; Prospectus for 1899 (July 1, 1899 to July 1,
1900). Pp. 112; Fourth International and other Exhibits. Awards of
Merit. Pp. 24; The Present Status of Our Educational Work. By Frederic
B. Pratt. Pp. 5.
Fragments of Science.
=Officers of the American Association for 1900.=--The American
Association, at Columbus, Ohio, elected as president for the next
meeting, which is to be held in New York city, June 25 to
30, 1900, Prof. R. S. Woodward, of Columbia University. The
vice-presidents-elect are: Section A (Mathematics and Astronomy),
Asaph Hall, Jr., of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Section B (Physics), Ernest
Merritt, of Ithaca, N. Y.; Section C (Chemistry), James Lewis Howe, of
Lexington, Va.; Section D (Mechanical Science and Engineering), J. A.
Brashear, of Pittsburg, Pa.; Section E (Geology and Geography), J. F.
Kemp, of New York city; Section F (Zoölogy), C. B. Davenport, of
Cambridge, Mass.; Section G (Botany), William Trelease, of St. Louis,
Mo.; Section H (Anthropology), A. W. Butler, of Indianapolis, Ind.;
Section I (Economic Science and Statistics), C. M. Woodward, of St.
Louis. The permanent secretary is L. O. Howard, United States
Entomologist, Washington, D. C.; General Secretary, Charles
Baskerville, of Chapel Hill, N. C.; Secretary of the Council, William
H. Hallock, of New York city. The sectional secretaries are: Section
A, W. M. Strong, of New Haven, Conn.; Section B, R. A. Fessenden, of
Allegheny, Pa.; Section C, A. A. Noyes, of Boston, Mass.; Section D,
W. T. Magruder, of Columbus, Ohio; Section E, J. A. Holmes, of Chapel
Hill, N. C.; Section F, C. H. Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind.; Section
G, D. T. McDougal, of New York Botanical Garden; Section H, Frank
Russell, of Cambridge, Mass.; Section I, H. T. Newcombe, of
Washington, D. C. Treasurer, R. S. Woodward, of New York city.
=Graphite.=--An interesting account of the history and manufacture of
graphite is given by E. G. Acheson in the June issue of the Journal
of the Franklin Institute. In the year 1779 Karl Wilhelm Scheele, a
young apothecary in the town of Köping, Sweden, discovered that
graphite was an individual compound. It had up to this time been
confounded with molybdenum sulphide. In 1800 Mackenzie definitely
added graphite to the carbon group by showing that, on burning, it
yielded the same amount of carbon dioxide as an equal amount of
charcoal and diamond. Graphite in a more or less pure state is quite
freely distributed over the earth, but only in a few places is it
found under conditions of purity, quantity, ease of mining, refining,
and transportation to market that permit of a profitable business
being made of it. Statistics for the last six years (1890-'95) show an
average yearly production of 56,994 short tons. The countries
contributing to the supply were Austria, Ceylon, Germany, Italy,
United States, Canada, Japan, India, Russia, Great Britain, and Spain.
Great differences exist in the structure and purity of the graphites
furnished from the various mines. There are two general forms--the
crystalline and the amorphous. The product of the Ceylon mines is
crystalline of great purity, analyzing in some cases over ninety-nine
per cent carbon, while that of the Barrowdale mines is amorphous and
also very pure. The chief impurity in graphite is iron. It is probable
that the first use made of graphite was as a writing substance. The
first account we have of its employment for this purpose is contained
in the writings of Conrad Gessner on Fossils, published in 1565. Its
present uses include the manufacture of pencils, crucibles,
stove-polish, foundry-facing, paint, motor and dynamo brushes,
anti-friction compounds, electrodes for electro-metallurgical work,
conducting surfaces in electrotyping, and covering the surfaces of
powder grains. For most of these purposes it is used in the natural
impure state. The mining and manufacture of graphite into articles of
commerce give employment to thousands of people. The mines of Ceylon
alone, when working to their full capacity, employ about twenty-four
thousand men, women, and children. The rapid increase in the use of
graphite has led to considerable discussion in recent years regarding
the possibility of its commercial manufacture. It has been made in a
number of different ways in the laboratory, all, however, depending on
the same fundamental principle--viz., the liberation of the carbon
from some one of its chemical compounds, under conditions which
prevent its reassociation with the same or other elements. Mr.
Acheson, who has been working for several years in an endeavor to
devise a commercially successful process of manufacture, found,
somewhere back in 1893, that graphite was formed in the carborundum
(electric) furnaces of the Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls. Since
then he has been following up this clew, and now believes that "the
only commercial way to make graphite is by breaking up a carbide by
the action of heat." A building for its manufacture in this way, by
the use of the electric furnace, is now in course of erection at
Niagara Falls.